Why should I run a node? What's the benefit to me for the effort? The answer seems less than clear.
Discussion
Increased on-chain transactional privacy. Education. Being a good community member. Assisting the network that is assisting you. Those sorts of things. Come join in, it makes you a true citizen of Bitcoin with a small but important vote in the future direction of the network if you actively select your node software/upgrades.
Thanks. I may get there eventually (running a node) but my concern is that economic incentives (like for mining) are far more reliable for motivating people to behave well than asking folks to do things to be good citizens. Ideally we'd all want to be good citizens but I'd be far more confident about it all if there were economic incentives to run a node.
It's how you vote in Bitcoin Consensus Protocol. Somebody tries to change the rules of Bitcoin and you don't agree? Your node will enforce the consensus rules you agree with. It gives you a voice on the protocol.
Good question.
Let's say you have your corn in cold-storage. You transact, send, receive, etc. Maybe you are a bitcoin treasury, maybe just someone that wants to not have your IP associated with your wallet.
If you check a public node, your IP goes with that check and now someone knows you are associated with that wallet and what your IP is - admittedly almost as good as a physical address these days.
If you check YOUR node, no one knows anything. If you run your node over TOR through a VPN with no logs, not even that.
Also, you support consensus.
You can also run a Nostr relay on your node. That is my next project.
Lightning nodes can also be configured. I think that will be later, assuming I'm around.
If I use a vpn with a public node, I still haven't revealed my IP address, have I? I think I will want to run a node eventually, if only for my own education, but until I plan to buy things directly with bitcoin, there doesn't seem to be a very pressing practical reason to do so. For now, I'm HODLing and educating myself.
node operators determine what Bitcoin is.
that is to say: the consensus mechanism is held in the node software & by choosing which version of Bitcoin software to run on your node you are effectively placing your vote on which software is the real Bitcoin software
no node, no vote
Hello millennial.
Not a bad guess, my youngest sibling is a millennial. My mom took me to work with her regularly around the age of 8 and in lieu of a babysitter, she gave me a few bucks to go hang out at the bowling alley and then just wander around the school until she was done working. No helicopter parenting back then.